Voyager near Solar System's edge... Solar winds moving sideways. - Polidicks

The little satellite that could! [Quote]Voyager 1 was launched on 5 September 1977, and its sister spacecraft, Voyager 2, on 20 August 1977. The Nasa probes' initial goal was to survey the outer planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, a task completed in 1989. They were then despatched towards deep space, in the general direction of the centre of our Milky Way Galaxy. Sustained by their radioactive power packs, the probes' instruments continue to function well and return data to Earth, although the vast distance between them and Earth means a radio message now has a travel time of about 16 hours. The newly reported observation comes from Voyager 1's Low-Energy Charged Particle Instrument, which has been monitoring the velocity of the solar wind. This stream of charged particles forms a bubble around our Solar System known as the heliosphere. The wind travels at "supersonic" speed until it crosses a shockwave called the termination shock. At this point, the wind then slows dramatically and heats up in a region termed the heliosheath. Voyager has determined the velocity of the wind at its location has now slowed to zero.[/quote] [quote]"We have gotten to the point where the wind from the Sun, which until now has always had an outward motion, is no longer moving outward; it is only moving sideways so that it can end up going down the tail of the heliosphere, which is a comet-shaped-like object," said Dr Stone, who is based at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. "When I realized that we were getting solid zeroes, I was amazed," said Rob Decker, a Voyager Low-Energy Charged Particle Instrument co-investigator from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. "Here was Voyager, a spacecraft that has been a workhorse for 33 years, showing us something completely new again." Voyager is racing on towards the heliopause at 17km/s. Dr Stone expects the cross-over to occur within the next few years. [/Quote] If this probe from 1977 is still showing us some awesome wonders, imagine what a modern probe meant for deep space could tell us about the out limits! Source is the always awesome BBC [url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11988466[/url]

Pure awesomeness.

[QUOTE]Voyager 1 was launched on 5 September 1977, and its sister spacecraft, Voyager 2, on 20 August 1977.[/QUOTE] Why was the second Voyager launched before the first Voyager?

Imagine if mankind were to survive long enough to collect data on what's outside of our galaxy. Think of all those other galaxies Hubble Deep Space has photographed. Not even Star Trek could do that.

Bye Voyager we'll come pick you up when we have space travel.

[QUOTE=markg06;26688738]Bye Voyager we'll come pick you up when we have space travel.[/QUOTE] We already have space travel :v: [img]http://www.wallpaperbase.com/wallpapers/space/spaceshuttle/space_shuttle_13.jpg[/img]

[QUOTE=markg06;26688738]Bye Voyager we'll come pick you up when we have space travel.[/QUOTE] Or it will come back to us..... edit: no matter how I try and word that it sounds like I am being condescending, when I was trying to make a spooky alien reference and maybe a star trek joke. Oh the perils of text.

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;26688748]We already have space travel :v: [img_thumb]http://www.wallpaperbase.com/wallpapers/space/spaceshuttle/space_shuttle_13.jpg[/img_thumb][/QUOTE] I call fake, the flag is backwards. :D

[QUOTE=Ultra Violence;26688717]Imagine if mankind were to survive long enough to collect data on what's outside of our galaxy. Think of all those other galaxies Hubble Deep Space has photographed. Not even Star Trek could do that.[/QUOTE] Lets hope we don't hear " "[I]Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn[/I]" at any point while scanning the stars.

[QUOTE=Strongbad;26688765]Lets hope we don't hear " "[I]Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn[/I]" at any point while scanning the stars.[/QUOTE] Maybe you. I, for one, am looking forward to becoming a cultist and following the Great Dark Lord in his path of destruction and chaos.

The Voyager project is the most successful space project we've seen so far. May it go on forever (or as long as it still has power :v:)

[QUOTE=rosthouse;26688824]The Voyager project is the most successful space project we've seen so far. May it go on forever (or as long as it still has power :v:)[/QUOTE] How is it even getting it's power?

[QUOTE=Ultra Violence;26688758]I call fake, the flag is backwards. :D[/QUOTE] A flag on anything which moves (planes, ships, people) is oriented so that the stripes are pointing to the rear, so as to be "blowing in the wind" it is old school military tradition. [editline]14th December 2010[/editline] [QUOTE=MasterFen007;26688902]How is it even getting it's power?[/QUOTE] An RTG basically Radiation batteries. EDIT: I got pictures! This is an example of what one basically looks like [url]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Cutdrawing_of_an_GPHS-RTG.jpg[/url] And this is a plutonium pellet [ the type used in the RTG's] after being under a graphite blanket for 4 minutes. It glows! [url]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9c/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_generator_plutonium_pellet.jpg/762px-Radioisotope_thermoelectric_generator_plutonium_pellet.jpg[/url] EditEdit: I cant get image tags to work click the link if you care :)

[QUOTE=Bluesummers;26688911]A flag on anything which moves (planes, ships, people) is oriented so that the stripes are pointing to the rear, so as to be "blowing in the wind" it is old school military tradition.[/QUOTE] Well it was a joke, but I actually didn't know that. Kind of interesting.

[QUOTE=Bluesummers;26688911]A flag on anything which moves (planes, ships, people) is oriented so that the stripes are pointing to the rear, so as to be "blowing in the wind" it is old school military tradition. [/QUOTE] True, because the only way it would be orientated backwards, is if you are retreating.

[QUOTE=Ultra Violence;26689052]Well it was a joke, but I actually didn't know that. Kind of interesting.[/QUOTE] The perils of text!!

[QUOTE=not_Morph53;26689082]True, because the only way it would be orientated backwards, is if you are [B]advancing in the opposite Direction[/B].[/QUOTE] :eng101:

[QUOTE=Bluesummers;26689131]The perils of text!![/QUOTE] Indeed! But it turned out for the better, I am now one fact smarter--all thanks to you and the lack of a sarcasm font.

[QUOTE=Ultra Violence;26688758]I call fake, the flag is backwards. :D[/QUOTE] It's always backwards on the right side of things... It's a symbol of America moving forward. Think 1800's with the American Flag being carried into a battle, depending on which side you stood on

That's it. We did this. Voyager is in the zone where the Sun's material influence slows down and effectively stops. By God. [I]By all the Gods, Voyager has reached the border to interstellar space.[/I] At its current velocity it will plow through the Heliopause, one light-day from the Sun, stealthily and brushing away the fine specks of interstellar matter, and it will become a true interstellar probe. After all these thousands of years of military conflicts, fake saints and true morons, confident religions and ideologies and billions of people who walked across this Earth and died, after all that, we did it. We sent a ship fluttering out among the stars. We made it.

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;26688661]Why was the second Voyager launched before the first Voyager?[/QUOTE]They were first designed, then launched.

[QUOTE=Eudoxia;26690022]That's it. We did this. Voyager is in the zone where the Sun's material influence slows down and effectively stops. By God. [I]By all the Gods, Voyager has reached the border to interstellar space.[/I] At its current velocity it will plow through the Heliopause, one light-day from the Sun, stealthily and brushing away the fine specks of interstellar matter, and it will become a true interstellar probe. After all these thousands of years of military conflicts, fake saints and true morons, confident religions and ideologies and billions of people who walked across this Earth and died, after all that, we did it. We sent a ship fluttering out among the stars. We made it.[/QUOTE] Aye but there's no people on the probe.

[QUOTE=bravehat;26690130]Aye but there's no people on the probe.[/QUOTE] That's for next time :c00l:

[QUOTE=Bluesummers;26688625]The little satellite that could![/QUOTE] It's not a satellite is it?

God I am so glad to be alive during the era of exponential progress.

[QUOTE=Rasrap Smurf;26690286]It's not a satellite is it?[/QUOTE] A satellite is something that orbits something else.

[QUOTE=Thom12255;26690547]A satellite is something that orbits something else.[/QUOTE] Technically Voyager is on a hyperbolic orbit around the Sun, but I get what you mean.

[IMG]http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/5743/forevervoyager.png[/IMG]

[QUOTE=Eudoxia;26690022]That's it. We did this. Voyager is in the zone where the Sun's material influence slows down and effectively stops. By God. [I]By all the Gods, Voyager has reached the border to interstellar space.[/I] We need to go further, let the next challange be to reach another star and it's planets. At its current velocity it will plow through the Heliopause, one light-day from the Sun, stealthily and brushing away the fine specks of interstellar matter, and it will become a true interstellar probe. After all these thousands of years of military conflicts, fake saints and true morons, confident religions and ideologies and billions of people who walked across this Earth and died, after all that, we did it. We sent a ship fluttering out among the stars. We made it.[/QUOTE]

Kick funking ass - but what happens now? [editline]14th December 2010[/editline] [QUOTE=Eudoxia;26690022]That's it. We did this. Voyager is in the zone where the Sun's material influence slows down and effectively stops. By God. [I]By all the Gods, Voyager has reached the border to interstellar space.[/I] At its current velocity it will plow through the Heliopause, one light-day from the Sun, stealthily and brushing away the fine specks of interstellar matter, and it will become a true interstellar probe. After all these thousands of years of military conflicts, fake saints and true morons, confident religions and ideologies and billions of people who walked across this Earth and died, after all that, we did it. We sent a ship fluttering out among the stars. We made it.[/QUOTE] .